Page 60 of Edge of Heaven

I’m always gonna touch you, baby, no one’s gonna hide.

There’ssomething about your eyes, they never tell me lies,

Your body makes me cry, our love is never gonna die.

It’s the edge of heaven when we kiss, closest thing to bliss,

I’m not a patient man, but you know we’re doing this.

“Mick.”Her voice is rough, as if she’s too emotional to say anything but my name.

“You like it?” I ask softly.

“You wrote that about me.”

“I did.”

“Michael…you’re going to make me fall in love with you.”

I love hearing her say my full name.

“Would that be so bad? It’s only fair since I’m falling in love with you.”

“But we haven’t even…been together again,” she protests.

“You think the sex is suddenly gonna be bad or something? I remember every detail of what it’s like to make love to you. And when we can finally be together, it’s going to be just as incredible as it was four years ago. There is no doubt in my mind about that.”

“Mick…” There’s a sadness to her voice I’ve never heard before. “You know if I’m going to get custody of Toby… I have to be in Los Angeles. I can’t be on tour with you. I have to be with him and we don’t know what’s going to happen with the leukemia.”

I hadn’t considered that but from where I’m sitting, it doesn’t matter. All I care about is her—and Toby. Kids aren’t on my radar, but if Taryn and Toby are a package deal, I’m all in.

“We’ll figure it out,” I say quietly. “Right now, we have a lot of things working against us, especially finances. But that’s going to change soon. Now that we’ve got a platinum album under our belts, the money is coming. Sasha said next quarter we should all see nice checks, probably in the six-figure range.”

“Oh, wow.”

“So once you’re away from Callum, all you need to think about is Toby getting well. And when I get that money, I can help you get set up in an apartment or a house or whatever you need. We can?—”

“Wait, wait.” Her voice is shaky again. “Mick, you can’t just give me your money.”

“Why? I can do whatever I want with it, and what I want is to make your life—and Toby’s—better.”

“You don’t even know him.”

“Not yet, but I will. And I’ll win over your mom too. Just wait and see. I’m a nice guy, you know.”

She sniffles. “You are. A really nice guy. Maybe the best guy I’ve ever known.”

“We’re going to find a way to make this work, babe. Trust me. It might be tough in the beginning, while we figure out the logistics, but it can’t be harder than what you’re going through now, right? We can survive a long-distance relationship while we sort things out.”

“I fall a little more in love with you every day,” she whispers.

“Ditto.”

“I have enough money saved for the last month’s payment,” she says. “So instead of three months, let’s count on two. As soon as he makes that payment in June, I’m leaving.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m not going to fly to L.A. next month, so that’ll save me about a thousand dollars, and I’m pretty frugal right now in general. My agent is depositing the money from Rock Vibe into my account soon, and I’m not making much for the Alexa Humboldt event, but every little bit helps.”

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